P2P Site Coalition to Help Indie Filmmakers

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Several of the largest BitTorrent sites including Mininova, The Pirate Bay and isoHunt have joined a coalition of file-sharing partners in an ambitious project to help filmmakers get their work out to the public. Founded by the director of Steal This Film, the VODO project debuts its first title today.

vodoBitTorrent and file-sharing in general are often looked down upon, or even hated by Hollywood execs. On the other hand, most independent musicians and filmmakers see these new technologies as the ideal tool to publish their work at no cost, and reach an audience much larger than they could ever reach offline.

In an attempt to connect filmmakers with the distribution power of the file-sharing community, Steal This Film director Jamie King has launched VODO. The project includes partners well known to the file-sharing community like Mininova, The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, Miro, Vuze and Frostwire, who have pledged to promote the works of VODO films.

Today, VODO announced the first release titled ‘Us Now‘, a documentary that looks at how ‘user’ participation could transform the way countries are governed. It tells the stories of the online networks whose self-organizing structures promise to change the fabric of government forever. Needless to say this is an ideal debut film with obvious connections to the file-sharing community. ‘Us Now’ is currently featured by Mininova and the other partners are expected to follow shortly.

With a strong backing from the BitTorrent community, including former BitTorrent President Ashin Navin and former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde, VODO hopes to establish itself as a top brand for high quality film downloads that are of interest to file-sharers. The filmmakers on the other hand will have an audience of millions of users, and the ability to generate revenue through donations, which can be quite lucrative.

How VODO Works

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“Followers of release groups like aXXo will be familiar with the model. But VODO is a release group with a twist. Not only are artists voluntarily sharing: downloaders can choose to make voluntary donations to creators. VODO lets creators manage their own donation links, with all donations going directly to the filmmaker,” The VODO team told TorrentFreak.

In the coming months VODO aims to release at least one film per month, including the premiere of ‘In Guantanamo’, a documentary by first-time director David Miller that
provides unprecedented access to the Guantanmo prison camp. “During 2010 VODO will build out a series of revenue opportunities for its creators, with the free-to-share model at their core,” King explained.

VODO is an exciting and ambitious new project that harnesses the power of the file-sharing community to support independent artists, while bringing high quality entertainment to the masses. It is P2P at its best, it’s what P2P is meant for.

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